The Force has awakened. In the December episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr, B.J. Priester, and Kay from the popular Star Wars critical discussion site FANgirl Blog share their initial reactions to Episode VII. We discuss the characters, plot, and more after multiple viewings of the film, with minimal additional information from opening-weekend creator interviews or the opening-day book releases. We also address the storytelling decisions to withhold certain key information from the audience in the first movie of the new trilogy, as well as the trailers and other marketing containing imagery and dialogue that do not appear in the final film.

This episode contains discussion of all of the major spoilers from The Force Awakens from the opening minutes of the show, so steer clear if you haven't yet seen the movie.

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Johnamarie Macias from The Wookiee Gunner joins Tricia Barr, B.J. Priester, and Geek Kay for a wide-ranging discussion on storytelling in Star Wars.

We continue our exploration of the individuals influencing the future of Star Wars storytelling with Diana Williams, a member of Lucasfilm’s Story Group. In October, Johna attended “A Conversation With Diana Williams” at the New York Film Festival, in which Williams talked about her upbringing, her path into the entertainment industry, and her perspective on transmedia storytelling and other technological changes altering the ways people can tell stories. At Lucasfilm, Williams is the Story Group’s lead on videogames, including the recently released Star Wars Battlefront, which offers a wide variety of gender and ethnicity combinations for players to use. She is vocal on Twitter about her criticisms of Hollywood for its problems with diversity, inclusion, and representation, and she no doubt speaks her mind within Lucasfilm’s creative team, as well. Thank you to Johna for sharing her report and reactions to Williams’ presentation.

For our world-building segment, we discuss Claudia Gray’s novel Lost Stars, released in September as part of the Journey to The Force Awakens. Like the three regular hosts, Johna also is a big fan of the book. We praised Gray’s effectiveness at designing the two cultures on the planet Jelucan, the valley kindred and the second-wavers, to create the personality traits in the lead characters, Ciena Ree and Thane Kyrell, which ultimately motivate the choices they make as the Empire and Rebellion clash over the course of the story.

The early season two episodes of Star Wars Rebels are featured in our storytelling segment.

Johna is keeping spoiler-free for The Force Awakens, so Tricia, B.J., and Kay conclude the show with a Spoilers Beware segment examining the new information and clues revealed in the marketing for the movie since our last show.

Next month The Force Awakens arrives! Look for a reaction show from Hyperspace Theories soon after opening weekend.

In the October episode of Hyperspace Theories, Tricia Barr, B.J. Priester, and Geek Kay of Fangirl Blog share our reactions to the newly released full-length theatrical trailer forThe Force Awakens. We also connect the images, dialogue, and music in the trailer to our earlier episodes and speculations about the movie.

On the heels of D23 Expo, Ryan Hurley from Turtle Power Podcast joins Tricia Barr, BJ Priester and Kay from FANgirl Blog to discuss how Disney will affect the Star Wars galaxy. What happens when Lucasfilm's ownership transitioned from a sole patron to corporate stakeholders? How did this affect script changes? Ryan Hurley relates his experience covering the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle reboot by Michael Bay and how fans affected the script and final movie.

Join Tricia Barr, BJ Priester and Kay of FANgirl Blog plus special guests Sarah and Richard Woloski of Skywalking Through Neverland podcast as we break down what was and wasn't said at The Force Awakens panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2015.

Spoilers, speculation and storytelling serve as the foundation for this episode. From Cover Girl makeup to leaked Russian images, Tricia Barr, BJ Priester and Geek Kay of FANgirl Blog break down recent spoilers for The Force Awakens. (Want to skip the major spoilers then jump from the Spoiler Intro to the 30 minute mark.)

The Meta segment looks at the potential influence of Hayao Miyizaki after Dave Filoni revealed last year it was a foundation suggested by Kathleen Kennedy. We've already seen Miyazaki's influence in The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.

How to resources affect storytelling? The Hyperspace Calculations segment mulls lightsabers, kyber crystals and the reasons Rey might be on Jakku.